We have reached a new phase of this 1975 document with today’s post. Here we transition to a longer section (67-72) in which we will look at, in turn the pope, the bishops, women and men in religious life, lay people in the world, the family, and young people before examining qualities such as collaboration, formation, and attitude (73-74). After pondering the role of the Holy Spirit (75) we will wrap up with a discussion of the qualities of evangelizers (76-80) and then a final encouraging word from Pope Paul VI (81-82). The end is in sight. But that gets ahead of ourselves.

So, who’s responsible for evangelization? You should know the answer by now. Every believer:

66. The whole Church therefore is called upon to evangelize, and yet within her we have different evangelizing tasks to accomplish. This diversity of services in the unity of the same mission makes up the richness and beauty of evangelization. We shall briefly recall these tasks.

First, we would point out in the pages of the Gospel the insistence with which the Lord entrusts to the apostles the task of proclaiming the Word. He chose them,[Cf. Jn 15:16; Mk 3:13-19; Lk 6:13-16] trained them during several years of intimate company,[Cf. Acts 1:21-22] constituted[Cf. Mk 3:14] and sent them out[Cf. Mk 3:14-15; Lk 9:2] as authorized witnesses and teachers of the message of salvation. And the Twelve in their turn sent out their successors who, in the apostolic line, continue to preach the Good News.

And while the Holy Father pointed out the Twelve and their successors, the Gospel call to witness to Christ is really the responsibility of all. Over the next week, we’ll look at how that responsibility is optimally exercised.

about Todd Flowerday

A Roman Catholic lay person, married (since 1996), with one adopted child (since 2001). I serve in worship and spiritual life in a midwestern university parish.

about John Donaghy

John is a lay missionary since 2007 with a parish in western Honduras. Before that he served in campus ministry and social justice ministry in Iowa. His ministry blog is http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com

He also blogs reflections on the lectionary and saints/heroes/events of the date at http://walktheway.wordpress.com

He'll be a long-term contributor here analyzing the Latin American bishops' document from their 2007 Aparecida Conference.